Arista Biotech, a company that makes Covid-19 testing kits, plans to set up a production facility in Hong Kong, joining the race to tackle a shortage as the city battles a ferocious fifth wave of the pandemic . The Singapore-based company will invest up to HK$60 million (US$7.7 million) in the factory, and plans to sell 10 million Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kits this year, according to Eric Tang, the co-founder and chief executive for Hong Kong. Arista has not identified a site yet, but hopes to start operations by the third quarter. The factory – its first in Hong Kong – should boost the local supply of testing kits in the long term. The city is facing a spike of Covid-19 cases and recorded more than 6,000 new local infections on Sunday. RAT kits produce results in around 20 minutes, much faster than the gold standard PCR test kits which take several days. They are essential for more timely self-isolation and could help to cut as many as 90 per cent of coronavirus transmission chains in the community, as part of city-wide testing, and alleviate the strain on health care resources. As thousands of patients overwhelm Hong Kong’s public health system, the government has called on people to conduct Covid-19 testing at home. That has pushed up demand for the products, driving prices as high as HK$300 (US$38.5) per box, compared with about US$3.70 each in Singapore. Arista’s self-testing kit is priced at HK$185 on Watsons’ online portal. Arista’s third factory, covering an area of 7,000 to 10,000 square feet, will produce three million kits monthly in the first four months. Volume will be elevated later. The site is likely to be located in the Hong Kong Science Park, though Tsuen Wan and other industrial areas have not been ruled out. Arista’s two existing factories are in mainland China and Singapore. “We want to set up an R&D [research and development] and manufacturing base in Hong Kong to coordinate with our other manufacturing sites, using some automatic manufacturing methods,” said Tang. The new factory will help the company implement its plan in the next three to five years to expand into surrounding markets in Southeast Asia. It has seen an increase in demand in recent months in countries like Brunei, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand. “The pandemic will still stay with us, and we hope it will be like a flu, although it’s more severe,” Tang said. Arista said its sales of Covid-19 self-testing kits surged to 500,000 units in the past couple of months in Hong Kong, almost equivalent to its sales in the whole of 2021. New test kit producers have flooded into the Hong Kong market in recent weeks, while local producers have ramped up their output. ProcureNet and Karrion Development, a joint venture backed by Kerry Logistics and Hengan Group, are among the kit makers that have boosted production lately. Tang, meanwhile, called for caution when it comes to the accuracy of some testing kits on the market. Some might not be able to test for newer variants such as Omicron, he said. “This is my biggest worry,” he said. “The government or universities should conduct an independent evaluation to tell people what they should buy.”